Vaupel backs revisions to state term limits

State Rep. Hank Vaupel has joined a bipartisan group of lawmakers seeking revisions to Michigan’s term limit laws.

Vaupel, R-Handy Township, is among the co-sponsors of a series of joint resolutions that would allow Michigan Legislators to serve longer terms in either the Senate or the House.

The resolutions wouldn’t eliminate term limits but would allow individuals to serve up to 16 years in either chamber or combined.

Currently, individuals are limited to no more than six years in the House and no more than eight in the Senate.

“The trouble is you don’t build up any traction,” Vaupel said. “You just get to know your way around and you have to leave.”

Both of Livingston County’s previous state House members were forced from office last year due to term limits, including Vaupel’s predecessor, Cindy Denby.

Michigan is one of 15 states with term limits for its state Legislators. It is one of six with a so-called “lifetime ban” – preventing individuals from ever again running for the state House or Senate once their term limits are reached.

The resolutions would replace the lifetime ban with bans on being elected to more than three consecutive two-year House terms and two consecutive four-year Senate terms. Overwhelmingly approved by state voters in 1992, term limits were billed as a way to return Michigan to a Legislature run by citizen lawmakers rather than political pros.

But term limits have come under increasing criticism, especially after this spring’s Proposal 1 debacle. In that election, voters overwhelmingly rejected a road repair plan crafted by a group of term-limited Legislative leaders.

Term limits do not apply to Michigan’s delegation to the U.S. Congress.

Because they were approved in a public vote, state term limits could only be revised through another ballot issue.

The House Joint Resolutions, HJR V, W and X, were initially sponsored by state Rep. Ed McBroom, a Republican from the Upper Peninsula.

They were introduced June 18 and referred to the House Committee on Elections.